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The Fall of Lucifer
11 - April 2016, GM: Lee, Hunters: Elliot, Helena, Jackie, Ozymandias, Tom, Player: Chloe The Dark Lady was forming a new faction of fae comprising on Winter and Wild Fae. The Lady was killed by Oz who went on to momentarily become the leader of the new faction until confronted by the Winter Lady. Elliot discovered that Lucifer has died and therefore they are no longer bound by their contract. In an underground bunker in East Stark, ND Ezriel! You there?! I know you always have an ear out for Tom but would you mind sparing a second for one of the less divinely important ones in the bunker? …. Yeah, well fuck you too - and don’t think this’ll stop me talking. You really should give your boy a bit more leave time - he comes back for all of a minute last month, drops that bomb of an...can you call that an apology? He comes back tossing magic round like it’s nothing, eyes glowing and babbling about being Chosen ...about both of us being part of some bigger plan by the angels. He says he doesn’t blame me for what happened to him anymore... ...Then he calls you and you both teleport off leaving me to twiddle my thumbs for a month. He’s in such a hurry I don’t even get to talk to him about what happened with Jackie in the last hunt. Makes for an awkward reunion at the hunt we all went on this week. Well, I say hunt... Mab sent us to clean up an upstart faction of fae taking advantage of the mayhem….You can say what you want about people in the refugee camps going missing but I know when a coincidence is too convenient. Tom starts asking Jackie how the last hunt went and… fuck, we’re not parents. We’re barely old enough to deal with a little screaming one, let alone a teenager with blood on her hands. We’re not even really a ‘we’ anymore. We manage to at least shove it aside for a second when we arrive at the camp. It soon becomes clear that the army running the camp are scared of something - scared enough to work with it. And I don’t think I even need to mention how well I know that kind of fear. It makes you weak, makes you selfish. Helena brings the Major out so I can talk some information out of him. He’s not talking until I offer him something that will guarantee him a get out of jail free card - so I do. I have the contract conjured before I even remember Jackie is right next to me. I can’t believe I made her see that - but at the time all I cared about was that deal. I feel a rush of relief and happiness as he signs the bottom of the paper in blood - but it wasn’t from me. It was the first positive emotion I’d felt since signing that second deal - and it was Lucifer’s. Lucifer was happy with me. For the first time since starting to work for him I was doing exactly what he had asked me to do - no loopholes or sidestepping, just obedience. I did what it took. And it scares me how easy it was. He told me a Ukranian called Anton had forcibly moved into the base with his squadron of cyborgs into the base....but that didn’t have anything to do with the missing people. It only took us one totalled cyborg to work that out. Out the back of the barracks we manage to find a door leading to a dimension full of Wild and Winter Fae. By the time Helena and I arrive, Tom’s already surrounded by them and we have to fight our way through to help and heal him. I can feel the Hunger waking up - it had been so quiet until now. We manage to calm the far down and set about to find the brains of the operation instead - The Dark Lady. In the temporary distraction, I find myself seeking out a few of the fae off to the outskirts - I offered them both deals for weapons. They jumped at them - I felt sorry for them... the way you pity a spider before you squish it. This time, the Hunger almost preened, as Lucifer's approval washed over me. Eventually, some of the fae leads us to the Dark Lady. I trick her into revealing she had been taking the people from the camp and, after we knew where they were being held, a fight breaks out. The Hunger strains at the leash but I don’t take my eyes off Jackie and Tom - they needed me, not it. I guess I’ll never know what Lucifer intended, but I was able to use the healing powers on others. Jackie fell back and I scrambled forward - reaching out and willing the power to flow through my hands into the scrape on her shoulder. As I finished, Tom went flying past into a wall of thorns behind us. I reached up to pull him free, supporting him slightly as he found his footing. I reached out for his cheek, cupping his face as I did what I could for the wounds inflicted by the Dark Lady. Tom looked up at the familiar connection. Our eyes locked and I felt my soul respond. I felt more like myself, than I had been for months. But the Hunger fought back. ‘KILL HIM KILLHIMKILLL’ it shrieked as it rushed upwards and outwards - stronger than anything left of me in there. I pull away, looking away as I step back. I barely remember the rest of the fight - I just pulled back inside, fighting the Hunger inside myself. I come out of it as the walls of the chamber started to rumble and shake. As the dimensions crashed around us, we run to free the captives and return to the door. I trip as the floor shakes particularly roughly, falling behind - I look up and see Tom waiting for me at the exit. He’s always been like that. Protective to a fucking fault, even before this whole chosen by heaven gig. You better have him on a fixed-term contract….just for the apocalypse. You better be planning on putting him back after this… No more glowing eyes, no missions, no guardian angels. Just Tom. The door slams as I arrive. We’re trapped. Tom calls you to teleport us out but it doesn’t work - as I’m pretty sure you’re aware, you can’t teleport out of dimensions. Tom starts to panic - I see his face as the lives of his two other guardian angels flash before his eyes. I reach out to grasp his shoulder, reminding him of the strength and power inside him. I’ve never really trusted his abilities as a Wizard, if we’re telling the truth. But if there’s one thing Tom knows how to do, it’s getting us out of trouble when words just won’t work. He draws on the magical energy sparking from the cracks in the crumbling dimension to open up a new portal. I jump through and as you come tumbling out behind me, I know something is wrong. I turn around just as the portal closes up behind me - leaving Tom in that collapsing realm. He stayed behind to make sure you got out of this alive, Ezriel! Is that just how it works? Are we all just agents of our own downfall? Is our death written in our soul - in the very things that make us who we are? Is this why you chose him? Because you know he’ll put anyone before himself. He will put everyone before himself. People like him… Fuck! They’re so busy rushing to selflessly throw themselves on the closest sword they don’t even stop to contemplate what it’ll be like for the rest of us to go on without him! I thought Tom was dead! And just because I couldn’t save myself… I fall forwards, reaching for the door but my hands only come back with air. It’s gone. I sink back into myself - letting instinct take over. I pull out the hellfire sword, hacking and slashing at the grassed ground where the door had once been - where Tom had once been. Grief became anger and anger became the Hunger - fully fledged and uncontrolled. And it bored of this quickly, searching around for something to feed on - something more alive - something that might fight back. It look up, locking eyes on… It locked eyes on Jackie. And then I feel a sharp stabbing at my neck and cold liquid entering my bloodstream - as I fall, I turn to see Helena holding a bottle of sedative. The Hunger explodes in rage like never before - it tears at my insides, trying to break its way out to get at Helena itself. But there's no motion behind it. I take one, sleepy swing as my body descends into darkness. I woke sometime after, and amidst the haze of the sedative - I realised the Hunger was gone. Everything came flooding back - the emotions it had kept at bay - the happiness, the fear, the love. It hit me like a truck. I fought out of the sedation, coughing and gasping for air - barely able to breathe as these last months hit me all at once. I doubled over - face frozen in a scream as tears poured out of me for the first time since….I don’t even know when. I searched around my soul for the scars and welts that had littered it until just seconds before - they weren’t there. I fished in my pockets for the contracts - they were in ashes. I felt arms around me and Jackie’s warm breath against the side of my face. I let my body go limp as I fell into her hug. And then I felt it. My soul - leaning in as well - sitting neatly inside my body, fitting like a perfectly tailored suit. And it howled. Tom was gone. Is this how Tom felt when he thought Lucifer had killed me? How had I ever felt that this was the less painful option? I sat there sobbing in Jackie’s arms, no light except the ring of fire silhouetting the moon. Then a spark - suspended in mid air. But it grew, stronger and brighter by the second. Then, where light had been, Tom stood - fierce, eyes glowing with that same light. There were so many things I wanted to say. Things I regretted not having the guts to sort out before now but it was all so uncertain. So many things stood on that stretch of empty ground between us that I could barely see through. So I fell back on the only certainty I had. “Lucifer is dead.” Sitting there, surrounded by the arms of the two people I love, suddenly human, as the world hurtles towards its end… and knew I would do anything to keep this safe. Was this all just part of a plan? Was I'' all part of the plan? Don’t get me wrong, I’m ''all for avoiding an eternity of certain damnation - but, like I said, I know when a coincidence is too convenient. Was what Tom said true, Ezriel? We’re all part of some bigger game plan? What was this? A thank you for my part in turning Tom into the fighter he is? You set us on these paths - and then what? You sit back and enjoy as we toe the line? Tom says none of you feathered fucks have free will. But do I? What does that even mean if your boss set up the playing board? You could have just asked. I’m fucking sick of it. I’m sick of feeling like a pawn. I’m still going in against this apocalypse - but because it’s the right thing - not cos I’m chained to anyone. God, if you're listening to this. I'm thankful. I really am - you've done more than I deserve as it is - but don't think you've made a church-goer out of me just yet. I’m doing this for Tom and I’m doing this for Jackie. Cos, you know, if anyone deserves to get through this alive it’s them. I know Tom wants Jackie out of this but she can do what she wants. I’m sick of bigger stronger things dictating what we do - I won’t be one of them.